#kiigan

"But Itachi... How else am I going to get one so we can match?"

He's not going to be nice to Gai. He'll never do that. ( He will do that, but it'll take some time to warm up to him just like he has to warm up to everyone else that isn't Itachi. ) Sasuke can pout all he wants, and Itachi can beg him not to go scrounging like a little creature, but he's still gonna do it.

@kiigan

Gai’s eyes widen — nearly bulge out of his head, in fact, when Itachi actually joins him on the floor. He stalls. Stares. Is this real? A question he’d once asked his rival a total of eighty-four times in the span of five days when they were once deep in a season of genjutsu practice. Had Itachi activated his sharingan at some point without Gai noticing?

But he scans his surroundings, nudges against his own chakra to check the walls of his consciousness. Nothing seems off, other than the once-graceful Uchiha Itachi lying prone on the floor an arm’s length away, agreeing to crawl home with him.

A dark set of eyes belonging to a teenager with nothing better to do stares down at the kid speaking to him.

Kotetsu wore the same judgmental look as most other peers in the Uchiha’s life, one of disdain and contempt, the subtle flare of his upper lip hinting at his disgust.

With everything he heard, the kid was a freak of nature. A living weapon. Someone people either loved because he was so gifted and talented or hated him because of their own envy and jealousy.

It wasn’t hard to figure out which of those two groups Kotetsu was a part of.

“Is that right?

Well, it don’t matter much.

‘Cuz lemme tell you somethin’ kid.”

This disillusioned chunin puts his hands on his knees as he crouches down to eye-level with the younger boy.

He throws his eyes open, wide and zany, as his spiky mop of hair and all too many piercings in his ears and face jingle from the slow, sarcastic shake of his head.

“Shinobi are property.

Government property.”

He points to the symbol engraved in his headband with a thumb and his lips split into the smile of a crackpot.

“You put one of these on and you forget allllll about your identity. You forfeit being a person and just become a number.

So you know what I do to help little shinobi wannabes like you?

I put em in lockers. As a sorta test. Like a test of courage.

‘Cuz if they can’t stand being cramped up in a locker then they usually can’t stomach the idea of winding up in an early grave.

At least with a locker, someone can come find you and save your ass.”

Kotetsu gives one of Itachi’s shoulders a firm squeeze. He wiggles him, mockingly, before ending it off with two hearty pats and a finger pointing in the direction of a locker that’s slightly ajar.

“So go on.

“We’re based, Itachi.

By default.

It’s a plant thing.

Of course you don’t get it!

You’re not a plant.”

Did Zetsu get it either? Absolutely not. This conversation is a non-zero-sum game.

"You know..." Kisame began, skin bristling with the sting of disinfectant, the texture taking an almost sandpaper quality which clung to the cotton balls. "I've heard being ticklish is some sort of residual prey response up the evolutionary line..." Certainly, it was a bizarre response which Kisame struggled to wrap his head around. "Maybe the erratic movements ward off opportunistic predators...." He mumbled contemplatively. While unrefined, sometimes unpredictability made for a less desirable target. Only, humans seemed to have taken this quirk and transformed it into a whole other thing.

"Oh, uhhh... I just wanted to see how you go about learning it. For... tipping the scales? Or getting away."

It's an overcast, misty morning in the woods. The kind of overcast that's a little bit enchanting. Not dreary, but the kind where the clouds are just thin enough to allow a little sunlight through and cast a gentle glitter onto the mist.

But then comes a disturbance. The sound of footsteps. Large, heavy footsteps. And parting trees. What comes after... is the visage of a relic. An old, war-worn, scaly beast. But she doesn't come with aggression, no. She's come to have a drink at the lake!